Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-02-10
COLORiNG A SLAVE.
How White Girl Was Stained SLACK y
Man Who Wished to Sell Her.

How a White Girl Was Stained SLACK y
Man Who Wished to Sell Her.
They were a strange looking7 coui1e
the man about forty years old, dFess>sd
in suit of blue jeans, well worm and
on his bullet head crimson plush cap,
fitting almost as tight as his own
scalp said resident Of St Louis, ire
lating an incident of early steamboat
travel on the Mississippi. He had q
long. thin face, rat-like eyes, and n ose
that almost defies description. The
child seemed to be about eight years
old and small for her age. Her b ir
was very short. and looked as if it hao
been singed with hot iron and then
blackened. She had large blue EYES
and a complexion such as never saw
in my life. It was of dirty brown,
approaching a mouse color. something
like the discoloration produced by taxi
ing nitrate of silver. She was dressed
in the usual style of farmers children
in the winter.
I'm the afternoon, while the boat
was steering past the shores of Arkan-
sas, a number of gentlemen passengers
were sitting forw ard on the boiler deck
in conversation. noticed the Kansas
man sitting near the company and
seeming much Interested in the talk.
After the party broke up he approached
me and inquired: Are you a South
erner2' told him I was. He then said
he had heard that black niggers were
worth heap more than white ones in
TIE South, and if he could get a partner
that was all right he had plan to
make a heap of money. informed
him rather shortly that I knew of no
one of my acquaintance whom thought
would ike to engage in business with
him: and left him.
The state-room allotted to me was
in the front part of the cabin. being
one OF the rooms originally occupied
by the engineers, they having the
room | was in and the one Immediate
" in the rear. In the bulkhead, or
partition separating the two rooms,
had been placed a window-pane for the
convenience Of the officers VINO occu-
pied the two rooms On the morning
after the day that I had the talk with
the ci-devant negro merchant | woke
rather early. and, turning over in the
berth. my face came opposite the WIN
dow in the partition, which. previous
to this time. had been closely covered
from the adjoining room The cover
ing was partly displaced, leaving
small aperture through which | could
see that the inmate Of the room was up
and moving around. and my attention
was aroused by hearing the voice Of a
child in seeming distress. and then the
voice was hushed. a # Z hand had been
placed over her mouth. On looking
through the glass | saw my queer ac-
quaintance engaged in staining the
child from head to foot. She was en-
tirely nude. and the operator had
large bottle Of 4 dark-colored fluid in
one hand. while in the other he held
sponge. He painted her over with sew
eral coats before he was satisfied with
that part of his work. Then he took
from his black carpet-bag & smaller
bottle, the contents of which he applied
TO her hair with a brush. After this
he dressed the child and put her out IF
the room, telling her TO 90 10 the ladies'
cabin.
Immediately after breakfast went
to the captain and told him what l had
seen and my suspicious in regard TO the
man and his white negro. The ladies
were informed OF what had taken place
and volunteered to take the child in
hand and find out all she could tell Of
herself and the man in whose posses
sion she was.
The ladies. with the assistance OF
the captains wife had taken charge Of
the little girl. and. after relieving her
mind of her fears-for she was in great
terror of the man they found that she
had been an inmate of an orphan asy-
lum in Kansas, and that the man had
taken her from the asylum for the
purpose of adopting her as his child.
His story was that he lived in
Iowa, and that he and his wife were
without children and wanted nice
little girl to raise. The little girl, re-
lieved of the presence of the man, told
a great many conclusive facts which
could not be doubted, and after a crit
zeal examination by a physician. who
was on the boat, she was pronounced
without doubt a white child. The man
with the red hat was locked in a state
room and one of the steamboat hands
put as d guard at the door. His black
carpet-bag was examined and found to
contain a lot of recipes for dyeing
black. along with the two bottles on
which were labels from dyeing estab-
liShment in ST. Louis, '-!St. Louis Re-
publican.